We are sharing this story of Bharadwaj Rishi for an important reason.

So, like Rishi Kanad searched the Atom way before John Dalton, Rishi Baudhayana predating Pythagoras by centuries, Sushruta invented the modern age surgery, in the same way Bharadwaj Rishi wrote the ideas of flying objects (Vaimanika Shastra) in his book Bharadvaja Samhiti, way before Right Brothers.

This is his story.

Lineage of Bharadwaj Rishi

Rishi Bharadwaj was one of the “Saptarishi’s”, (seven great sages) of ancient India and is associated with various fields of knowledge like ayurveda, astronomic. But he is most known for his knowledge of aeronautics.

He came from the lineage of great rishis too, as he was the son of Maharishi Brihaspati, who in turn was the preceptors of the devas. Rishi Bharadwaj was also the father of Dronacharya (from the Mahabharata). He had unquenched thirst for knowledge and wanted to get deeper into the miraculous knowledge of the ancient text of Vedas.

The boon by Lord Indra

People and sages of those times had a life span of a hundred years. Knowing this, he realized that these many years would not be enough to study the whole of Vedas, and thus decided to do something about it.

He put himself through severe penance and meditation. Lord Indra was pleased and appeared before him and the rishi asked for “bless me with life for another hundred years so I can complete the study of the Vedas”.

Lord Indra granted this wish and Rishi Bharadwaj continued to study further. However, this much life span too, seemed short to finish the study of the Vedas, so he meditated once more and Lord Indra appeared once again, and again Rishi Bharadwaj asked for the same thing. This happened for a total of 5 times.

Lesson for Bharadwaj Rishi

Lord Indra decided that he had to teach a moral and particle lesson to Bharadwaj. He came before Rishi Bharadwaj and created 3 huge mountains in front of him. Bharadwaj thought Lord Indra was about to bless him. Instead, he collected a handful of sand from the mountain and said; “Bharadwaj, the Vedas are like these mountains, and you have just attained knowledge as much as this sand. The Vedas can be completed only by the Gods, but for you it is now important that you use the knowledge that you have gained and dwell on it”.

Realizing this, Bharadwaj set forth to master and dive deep into the attained knowledge, rather than focusing on completing the Vedas.

Soon he established and founded many knowledgeable works, but most prominently he established the Viman Shastra, the knowledge and compilation of work of building and operating flying machines, or present-day aero planes. 

Thus is the true glory of Rishi Bharadwaj.

Bhavisha Doshi